I don't want to be a ****** WHM, but I'm still relatively new with the job and I'd rather ask a dumb question than mess up in a party.

So barspells. How do I know which ones to use and when? Is it based purely on mob families or something else? I know they can provide protection against attacks and TP moves that correlate with an element, but short of looking up every mob on the wiki, how am I suppose to know?

I want to get better at using barspells, but pretty much all I know offhand is Gob = barfira and Mandy = barsleepra. No one really mentions them or asks for them in PTs.

Firstly, don't panic. Daunting as it may seem, eventually you'll get familiar with when you need to use them. I don't know what level you are but you only use a few on the way up, but they can be pretty handy. When you get to higher levels, they're used a lot more.

Bar Elemental is a beneficial status effect that surrounds a player with an element until it wears off or is removed. Benefiting characters gain resistance to a specific element. Damaging spells of the same element will have a chance of getting resisted and deal reduced damage. Enfeebling effects of the same element (directly or indirectly) will have a lower chance of landing on the characters.

Barwatera for crabs, fish. Fish do Aquaball which damages and inflicts STR down. Barwatera improves the chance of taking less damage from the AoE and may even help resist the STR down.

Barfira for goblins as you mention.

It's useful to stack the bar-element spell with the bar-status you're trying to avoid, where possible. So if you cast Barpoisonra, adding Barwatera will improve your chances of having poison not land at all.

However for mobs, if you're fighting elementals, always use the appropriate barspell. If you're fighting bombs - same. The ones I used on the way up were barwatera, barfira and baraera.

Barspells really become incredibly important in the higher levels but looking at mobs you might encounter on the way up...

Crabs/flies/pugils/Sahagin - barwatera. Cursed sphere may not be covered by Barwatera but Venom is.

Worms - barstonra

Triple bats, Puks - baraera

Goblins - barfira

There is an argument that you could use barstonra to try and improve your restistance to spider slow. At 75, it certainly helps but I'm not sure it's worth the chances of getting caught in an AoE yourself because it's not enormously reliable.

Also, be aware of AoE mobs and where your BRDs are if you xp with BRDs. Let the BRD know you're about to cast a barspell, because otherwise you'll be running into buff the party whilst your bard is singing ballad to him or herself and you'll miss it.

While the elements of each attack aren't always obvious (you'll learn over time the ones that aren't), the main thing you'll wanna keep in mind is that status ailments are tied into certain elements. For instance, silence is associated with wind. Having Baraero up lowers the chance of being afflicted with silence from most sources.

Other common examples:

poison = water paralyze = ice slow = earth

What this means is that if you're being hit by an attack that does damage and inflicts poison, there is a good chance (not total certainty) that it's doing water-based damage.

If you can cast both a corresponding Barelement and a Barstatus spell against a status ailment attack, you can actually provide a pretty solid defense against it.

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There is an argument that you could use barstonra to try and improve your restistance to spider slow. At 75, it certainly helps but I'm not sure it's worth the chances of getting caught in an AoE yourself because it's not enormously reliable.

If you do this, I would click the barspell off of yourself afterward. Why?

You want the slow to at least land on you, for Esuna purposes. Regardless of whether you Barspell this, Spider Web is something I'd usually try to get hit by on WHM (at least at the levels where Esuna is available)

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Triple bats, Puks - baraera

For triple bats you'd actually want to use Barwatera for Sonic Boom. (This is one of those "not obvious" scenarios I mentioned above)

As with spiders though, note that simply throwing up the Barspell probably isn't going to help your entire party resist the effect consistently. If Esuna is available, make sure you click off the Barspell from yourself if you use it, and just abuse Esuna to take care of things.

Just realized that triple bats in areas outside of the original/Zilart areas can use Turbulence, which does inflict AoE wind damage. However, the times you'll be fighting triple bats in CoP/ToAU/WotG areas are likely slim to none. I try to avoid fighting these anywhere, myself.

I actually prefer Barwater/Barpoisonra combo on spiders. High level ones tend to do quite a bit of damage with just the initial Venom Spray (200-400). It may not always prevent the poison, but it usually reduces the initial damage.

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It is better wither to be silent, or to say things of more value than silence. Sooner throw a pearl at hazard than an idle or useless word; and do not say a little in many words, but a great deal in a few. - Pythagoras

I actually prefer Barwater/Barpoisonra combo on spiders. High level ones tend to do quite a bit of damage with just the initial Venom Spray (200-400). It may not always prevent the poison, but it usually reduces the initial damage.

Barpoisonra (and similarly barsleepra, etc) will not make you resist poison. It will simply give you a chance at a reduced duration of poison. In other words, unless you don't have the MP for poisona or can't cast it or something, barpoisonra is a waste of MP.

For the OP, you would be better off not using barsleepra, in my opinion, when fighting mandies. It would make more sense to stand out of range and wake people up with cures after a sleepga.

Thanks for the tips, everyone, it really helps. I feel like I'm finally getting the whole barspell process, so thank you for taking the time to share your experiences with me.

For using barspells, should I have a full set of elemental staffs on me and macro them in, or is that overkill?

Fynlar wrote:

While the elements of each attack aren't always obvious (you'll learn over time the ones that aren't), the main thing you'll wanna keep in mind is that status ailments are tied into certain elements. For instance, silence is associated with wind. Having Baraero up lowers the chance of being afflicted with silence from most sources.

Does the reverse apply? As in, if I throw up a barslowra, would it help with resists against earth element attacks or is it just limited to slow only?

Does the reverse apply? As in, if I throw up a barslowra, would it help with resists against earth element attacks or is it just limited to slow only?

Barstatus applies only to the status effect. Barpoison would not reduce direct water damage, for instance.

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For using barspells, should I have a full set of elemental staffs on me and macro them in, or is that overkill?

The hidden effects of elemental staves only work with attack magic. You can equip an appropriate staff to enhance your own elemental resistance, but it will not affect the power of the barspell in any way.

If you ever use your whm in Dynamis, please don't run in to cast Barfira on nin mobs that doesn't do anything.

Unless said Nin is a Goblin.

I made a list of all the main barspells you would use on each Mob family, but for space sake, i'll only list the ones that are more party relevant. I'll be useing shorthand alsoinstead of writing out each barspell each time.

Not all of these are essential either, some are more useful than others, i just list the Most important ones of all the bars castable on said mobs.

Oops, sorry for having a stupid moment and using barslowra as an example, but I'm glad it got the point across. Thank you for answering my questions regarding the barstatus spells and elemental staves, Jax and Fynlar.

Chrono, I should have specified that I meant in a party environment. Once I hit endgame, I'll be sure to ask the leaders exactly what I should be using and when @_@

dmhlucky, thank you for the list! Between you and eldelphia, I think you've covered all the mobs.

I'm glad this thread helped you out too, Janaka. I also bookmarked the thread because I know I'm gonna be referencing it for a while, haha.